Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Andrew Main
Scale opportunities are great but beware risk for counterparties
For a man who has just got his hands on the steering wheel of a $230 billion superannuation behemoth, Ian Patrick is certainly not resting on his financial laurels. His old employer Sunsuper has just formally merged with the other big Brisbane-based super fund, QSuper. That emphatically places his new employer as the second biggest super fund in Australia after AustralianSuper, which was has AUM at around $245 billion. He’s clearly more focussed on bedding down not one super fund merger but two.
Being nimble has never been a disadvantage: CareSuper’s Wetherall
CareSuper chair Terry Wetherall projects a calm demeanour, as befits his role, but sometimes his body language gives him away. What does he think of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s recent failed push to crack down absurdly hard on proxy advisers?
BILL’S BITES: House price boom has further to run
Australia’s housing markets are again outperforming expectations. Despite recent extended lockdowns, prices have continued to post strong gains with even the most affected markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra sustaining a strong double-digit annual pace of growth.
Big investors eye clean energy investments
For Australia, a cleaner energy future as we head towards 2050 is imperative. It presents an enormous opportunity on multiple levels, but the challenge is ensuring we have the right structures in place to support it. What will underpin Australia’s efforts is an effective transition to the reliable generation and distribution of that energy. To get there, our current generation and distribution networks need to have the capability to handle the energy transition.
The cattle and cheese innovators smashing stereotypes
If you do a quick Google image search for “Australian farmer”, it may be no surprise that only 16 per cent of people in the first 100 are women. It’s by no means a scientific test, but reflects a fairly common perception that Australian farming is synonymous with men, despite women’s critical contribution.
APRA's move a modest headwind for a hot housing market - for now
After months of ‘will they or won’t they’ chatter, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has stepped in to counter rising risks in the housing market. So, what does it mean for prices? Well, in short, not much – in the short-term at least.
Locked down but not out: SMEs raring for reopening
It’s been a difficult period for millions of Australians and today’s easing of COVID restrictions in New South Wales marks a significant moment in the nation’s path through the pandemic. We have seen an incredible response across Australia to accelerate vaccinations, and this much anticipated milestone for NSW will bring greater freedoms for both households and businesses.
When will she be right?
At this year's UN Women Australia #IWD2021 lunch in March, I stood in front of 1200 people, which in itself feels surreal, and reminded them that according to the World Economic Forum the first generation of women that would experience equality would do so in 2120. My 16-year-old daughter was in the room. On the WEF’s forecast, that’s not her daughter, nor her daughter’s daughter. For those in the room, I know it seemed unfathomable.
The dog school with a mental health difference
Kelly Barnes had always thought of Dugald, her 14-year-old farm working Kelpie, as a mate. But she never guessed the old dog would end up sparking an idea to tackle the mental health struggles prevalent in farming communities across Australia. “He’s just been everywhere with me, my constant companion and workmate,” says Barnes, who worked on farms as a livestock contractor across Australia after migrating from England in 2007.
Tech needs to be built to change
Two years ago, not long after arriving in Sydney, I was out getting a haircut. As I chatted to my barber, who was probably around 25 years old and happened to be a Westpac customer, our chat turned to banking apps. After bracing myself, I asked him what he liked about the bank, why he banked with Westpac. His answer flawed me. “I like what Westpac does for the community, you know, like flying the rescue helicopters,” he replied.
Home schooling, WFH: Handling an ‘imperfect system’ a bit longer
The maths worksheet is late, and you can’t remember how to do long division, much less teach it. The year two’s homework remains stubbornly unread, while your work email inbox dings at you accusingly. Meanwhile, the meeting you’re supposed to be in started five minutes ago, and your youngest is trying to put lipstick on the cat. Sound familiar?
Delta divergence: How consumers have been spending around Australia
There’s a stark graph in Westpac’s latest “Coast to Coast” update on the state economies highlighting the divergent damage the Delta outbreaks have had around the country. Output across “rest of Australia” is expected to steadily rise in the second half of calendar 2021, while the more heavily lockdown-impacted New South Wales and Victoria experience a sharp dip before a recovery.
‘It’s all people’: What 50 years in business taught Hungry Jack's founder Jack Cowin
After half a century in business, Jack Cowin doesn’t blink when asked what it takes to get an idea off the ground and enjoy success. “I don’t think – in my case or for other entrepreneurs that I know – that you ever feel you’ve been successful because you carry this paranoia about what could go wrong,” the 79-year old tells Westpac Wire as his Hungry Jack’s burger chain celebrates its 50 year anniversary.
‘If I can’t see you working, are you?’ The WFH trust adjustment
As the operator of hybrid work website OfficeForTomorrow.com, Geoff Quattromani is unsurprisingly a big fan of the massive changes to working and workplaces in the past 18 months. But even he has some concerns about one quirk to emerge with a hint of a big brother vibe: the use of time tracking software to keep tabs on staff working from home.
Counting the cost of Delta’s Aussie incursion
Lockdowns of large chunks of the Australian economy are fast taking their toll, with fresh analysis showing greater Sydney’s restrictions alone will cost $1 billion a week, intensifying the focus on how long it will take to bring the COVID-19 outbreaks under control and reopen.
Dr Nick Coatsworth: Why I advised mum to get the COVID jab
A couple of weeks ago, I got a text message from my cousin. The message was, 'you’d better call your mum, she doesn't want to have the COVID-19 vaccine'. That was a surprising text message to me, as you can imagine, an infectious disease physician, and with a previous role in the Australian government for COVID-19.
REWORK: How a high ‘AQ’ is helping SMEs survive
As the number of COVID-19 cases began to spike in Australia in March, Kate Dickerson and her husband Steve were quick to put their small business into hibernation. For six years, Senior Style had been bringing its mobile clothing store to residents at aged care homes – but its clients were now the most vulnerable to the pandemic and were promptly shut off to the outside world. “The night that I realised what was happening, I didn't sleep at all.
Students Protest For More Gender-Neutral Restrooms
Students Hope Sousa and Kylie Chartier protest on the Quad advocating gender-neutral bathrooms. Photo by Greg Clark. A group of students took to the Quad on Nov. 7 and called upon administrators to increase the number of gender-neutral restrooms available in academic buildings and residential halls. The demonstration was held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and featured approximately 20 students.
Respectful Students or Narragansett Nuisances?
This September has seen slightly fewer incidents compared to past years According to the Narragansett Police Department, since the beginning of the academic year there has been a slight decrease in the number of nuisance complaints regarding off-campus University of Rhode Island students, in comparison to previous years. Narragansett Chief of Police Sean Corrigan said there are frequently more nuisance complaints in September than other months.
Professor Leading Effort to Educate About Tick-Borne Diseases
Professor Thomas Mather shares his research on lyme disease in ticks. Photos by Autumn Walter. Sitting behind his computer, Thomas Mather opened a website that allows him to view forms sent in by people who believe they have found a tick that may carry Lyme disease. Mather, upon opening one of the forms, was able to identify that the insect in question was not a tick, and then was able to respond to the individual and assure that there was no need to worry about contracting Lyme disease.
New fund taps into female-founded start-up returns
Ariane Barker can empathise with women investors shying away from the start-up scene. “At the moment, it’s a pretty blokey, hustly, opaque, secretive space, which doesn't resonate with a lot of women investors, myself included,” says Barker, the chief of angel investor network Scale Investors.
Annual Diversity Awards Banquet Honors Students Dedicated to Social Progress
(Left to Right) Carnell Jones, Mary Grace Almandrez, Kathy Collins, Donald Dehayes, David Dooley, George Gallien and Blessing Gbemisola presented at the Diversity Awards. | Photo by Grace DeSanti. Over a hundred students, staff members and guests gathered yesterday evening to honor community members dedicated to the advancement and incorporation of diversity at the University of Rhode Island.
Fraternity Circle Renovations will Begin Later this Month
Work to move above ground utilities underground and repave the road in Fraternity Circle begins this week. |Photo by Greg Clark. Preliminary stages of a multiphase, a $5 million project that will improve Fraternity Circle’s infrastructure will begin this week, and the project will be fully underway starting May 20, 2019. The project has two phases. The first phase will begin this week, and a majority of the work will be completed between May 20, 2019 and Aug. 20, 2019. By Aug.
URI Catholic Center Chaplain Placed on Administrative Leave
The priest at Christ the King Church located on campus was removed. | Photo by Anna Meassick. The Catholic Center chaplain at the University of Rhode Island has been placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Providence. Rev. Joseph R. Upton was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 30, 2019. Upton has been removed from his duties as chaplain and is not allowed to publicly minister while on leave. The Diocese declined to disclose why he was placed on leave.
Is IAG in a storm?
Australia’s biggest domestic insurer IAG recovered slightly yesterday, picking up $0.03 to close at $5.75, which in the light of the weekend’s storms, is like finding the roof doesn’t leak after all. On Monday, the Insurance Council of Australia announced that Queensland and New South Wales were officially in a state of catastrophe in insurance terms, following that up yesterday by putting Victoria and Tasmania in the same category.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Andrew
Contact Andrew, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack